Farewell to Bo Played Strictly by Book, 17-10 : Rose Bowl: Michigan’s Schembechler finishes career at 2-8 in Pasadena as USC wins on late touchdown.

Bo Schembechler’s coaching career ended just like so many of his seasons at Michigan--with a loss in the Rose Bowl and without a national championship.

And with Bo seething at the officials.

“The one thing I won’t miss in retirement is incompetent officials,” he said after his 27-year coaching career ended with a 17-10 loss to No. 12 Southern California. “It’s the most unbelievable call and I got it in my last game.

“It was a Pac-10 official and it happens every time I come out here.”

As do losses in the Rose Bowl -- Schembechler was 2-8 in the New Year’s Day game.

His ire was provoked by a costly penalty that turned the tide to Southern Cal late in the game. The Wolverines, with fourth-and-2 from their 46, picked up 24 yards and a first down on a run by Chris Stapleton off a fake punt.

But the play was called back on a holding penalty against Michigan. Schembechler then yelled at the officials, who threw a flag in his direction and marched off 15 more yards to go with the 10-yard assessment for holding.

The Wolverines then punted, and Southern Cal began the winning drive from its 25-yard line.

“It’s over, unfortunately I lost my last game,” said Schembechler, who announced Dec. 13 that the Rose Bowl would close his coaching career. “We couldn’t seem to get anything going. We really did not play a very good football game.

“I’m mad because we lost the game, but there’s nothing we can do.”

The Trojans (9-2-1), snapping a two-game losing streak in the Rose Bowl, got the winning touchdown on a 14-yard run by Ricky Ervins, the game’s most valuable player, with 1:10 remaining. The score capped the 75-yard drive engineered by Todd Marinovich in the closing minutes.

“We knew it was Bo’s last game but we put that out of our minds,” said Michigan safety Vida Murray. “We knew what we needed to do, but we just couldn’t do it.”

Schembechler, whose Wolverines beat Southern Cal 22-14 in the Rose Bowl a year ago, will remain the school’s athletic director. Assistant Gary Moeller will become the head coach.

Schembechler wound up his head coaching career with a 234-65-8 record, including 194-48-5 during 21 years at Michigan. He finished as the fifth winningest coach in Division 1-A history, four behind Woody Hayes.

“I’m just the ole whistle-tooter,” Schembechler said. “I have to go, but I’ll always be Michigan.”

Southern Cal’s Larry Smith, who began his college coaching career as an assistant under Schembechler and remains his friend, said, “I’m sorry that he’s leaving the game. But you never apologize for winning.”

“This is a football game. He wouldn’t have wanted me to coach any differently,” Smith said.

Ervins, asked if it was of special significance to play against Schembechler in the coach’s last game, said, “No. ... The fact that it was the Rose Bowl made it a big game.”

Ervins carried 30 times for 126 yards, and broke off tackle to score the winning touchdown.

Redshirt freshman Marinovich guided the Trojans on the winning march beginning with 5:15 to play, including a 20-yard completion to John Jackson on third-and-5 at the Michigan 44.

USC led at the half, 10-3. But that relatively uneventful score was misleading.

The first half of the 1990 Rose Bowl game was marked by strange decisions by each team. Or, in a number of cases, strange non-decisions.

The strangest involved USC’s version of a late drive before the half ended. After holding Michigan deep in its own territory and forcing the Wolverines into a punting situation, USC blithely let the clock tick seconds off while Michigan slowly got its punting team on the field. This despite the fact that the Trojans had all three of their timeouts remaining.

When USC took over at its 26 after a punt return of eight yards by Calvin Holmes and a clipping penalty of 15 yards, there was only 1:37 left to play in the half. Shortly before Michigan fielded its punting team, there had been more than two minutes on the clock.

Then, having put themselves up against much tougher odds than necessary, USC marched down the field like a Johnny Unitas-led pro team working a two-minute drill. Soon, freshman quarterback Todd Marinovich had the Trojans at the Michigan seven after scrambling 23 yards. But rather than call a timeout, Marinovich chose, strangely, to re-gather his team and set up for a snap. He then threw the ball over Joel Scott’s head to stop the clock.

Ricky Ervins rushed to the four, and USC took its first timeout with 27 seconds left. Next, Marinovich rolled left and threw into a crowd. The pass was broken up, but USC got another break when holding away from the ball was called against Michigan. That carried with it an automatic first down and put the ball at the Wolverine two.

With 21 seconds to play and two timeouts left, Marinovich rolled left again, was rushed and clearly dumped the ball off intentionally. That’s the way the officials called it, putting the ball back on the Michigan 19 and causing loss of down.

On second down from the 19, Marinovich rolled left yet again, was rushed, but found Frank Griffin, a backup tight end, wide open in the middle of the field. Griffin caught the pass, started up field but slipped at the 16. USC was able to call a timeout, its second, with three seconds left, allowing Quin Rodriquez to kick a 34-yard field goal on the last play of the half.

Ironically, the fact that Griffin slipped undoubtedly saved the Trojans. Through classic mismanagement of the clock, they had put themselves in a situation where, had he continued toward the end zone, he probably would have been tackled short of the goal with time elapsed.

The Trojans had thoroughly dominated the first quarter, consuming nearly five minutes with an opening drive that ended when Marinovich threw an interception at Michigan’s 33. Later in the quarter, Rodriquez missed a 32-yard field goal that appeared to barely float over--and wide of--the left upright.

In the second quarter, defensive guard Dan Owens broke through and blocked a punt by Michigan’s Chris Stapleton. The ball was picked up by USC’s Junior Seau, who returned it 24 yards to the Wolverine 11.

But even then, it took the Trojans six plays to finally get the ball into the end zone, and when they did, it appeared that luck, once again, was involved.

After USC gained a first down on fourth and inches from the two--by inches on a sneak by Marinovich--the quarterback set his team up, second and inches shy of the goal. He went to hand off to fullback Leroy Holt, but kept the ball instead and slipped over left tackle, into the end zone. The play appeared to be a broken handoff, because when Marinovich turned to head toward the end zone, he looked confused.

With Rodriquez’s kick, the score was 7-0, and Michigan had done little.

Shortly after USC passed up a possible 45-yard field goal attempt for a fourth-and-ten incompletion, Wolverine running back Leroy Hoard finally got untracked. Hoard started right and cut back over the middle for a 46-yard gain that set up an eventual 20-yard field goal by Michigan with 6:30 left in the half.

But before J.D. Carlson put up the three points for the Wolverines, Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler called a halfback option pass and a quarterback draw from the five.

Hoard finished the half with 86 yards rushing, significant in that the best full game this season against the Trojans was Tony Rice’s 99 yards for Notre Dame.

Michigan managed only three first downs in the half, to 10 for USC, and the Wolverines were outgained, 239 yards to 127. Marinovich threw 26 times and completed 18 for 129 yards, that for a school that used to throw that many times in, say, the first four games of its season.

In the second half, Hoard--the most valuable player in the Wolverine’s 22-14 victory over USC in the 1989 Rose Bowl--really started to get into the flow. The 220-pound junior from New Orleans, who scored two late touchdowns in last year’s Rose Bowl in rushing for 142 yards against the Trojans, set up the Wolverines’ tying touchdown with a 31-yard run midway through the period.

As he did in his breakaway in the first half, Hoard used dazzling open-field moves to put Michigan in position for Allen Jefferson’s two-yard scoring run with 4:05 to play in the third quarter that made the score 10-10.